With social engineering being the buzzword in the Bihar polls, the Congress has undertaken a delicate balancing act in giving representation to various castes and communities in its ticket distribution exercise. The party has attempted to break new ground while retaining its support base consisting of upper castes, Muslims and Dalits.
Reaching out to the youth, the party has given 42 seats to people below 35 years, while women have been declared as candidates in 35 seats so far. Hoping for a revival in minority support, the party has given tickets to 47 Muslim in 221 seats for which candidates have been declared so far.
Some more members from the community are likely to get tickets from the remaining 21 seats for which the tickets are yet to be distributed. Upper castes, who are not known for voting for Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal and have shown some hostility towards the Janata Dal-United have also got a major share of the Congress' tickets. 79 tickets have been given to Congress nominees from the upper castes which include 32 to Rajputs, 25 to Bhumihars and 18 to Brahmins.
The party has 56 OBCs candidates so far of which 20 belong to the Yadav community. A senior Congress leader said the strategy is to dent Lalu's M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) combination.
The party has 37 scheduled castes candidates, of which 12 belong to the Paswan community. Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, whose party is fighting this election in alliance with Lalu Prasad's RJD hails